On Thursday, the Cathedral was delighted to welcome the Reverend Canon Flora Winfield, the Church of England's Third Estates Commissioner and Julian Atkin, the Church's Net Zero Programme Director, to learn more about how we and the wider City of Portsmouth have been working to reduce our collective carbon footprint.

Joining the Dean for these discussions were Cllr Vernon Jackson and Port of Portsmouth CEO, Mike Sellers who talked through the transformative work underway and accomplished across the City and Port. The team from TGA Consulting who undertook the Cathedral's recent Energy Feasibility Study also presented their findings and model. (This study was part funded by the Commissioners).

"Since 2013, a series of small steps have reduced the Cathedral's carbon footprint by 55% (39% weather adjusted) which is both an amazing accoplishment and, more importantly, a good starting point for what we do next. Our day with Flora and Julian gave them the opportuntity see what we have been doing, what else we would like to do and how they might be able to assist us in this next step of the journey as we explore options to replace our aged heating and lighting systems with more energy efficient ones." said our COO Richard.

"Involving our partners in the City helped to illustrate that the work we are doing here at the Cathedral is part of a larger comminuty wide effort including hugely impressive work at the Royal Naval base that has seen them dramaticaly cut their carbon footprint. Working together, we are transforming our local environment that leads to healthier lives for all in the City - and the Cathedral is playing an increasingly important role in this preservation of our God-given environment." concluded our COO Richard.

The Third Estates Commisioner has responsibility for Cathedrals and Bishoprics within the Church of England. To learn more about the work of the Commissioners see their website.

The Church of England's £190million Net Zero Programme aims to, over a nine year period, help transform the fabric of the Church (e.g. Churches, Cathedrals, Church of England schools and clergy housing) to meet Net Zero targets.